The MAXCAP Working Paper No. 29 “The Adventures of the CVM in Bulgaria and Romania, No. 29, August 2016” by Georgi Dimitrov, Kaloyan Haralampiev and Stoycho Stoychev has been published. You can download the Working Paper here.

The paper reports the findings of a comprehensive study of the European Commission’s reports under the CVM regarding Bulgaria and Romania for the period from 2007 to 2012 focusing on comparative dynamics. The main question is to what extent the EU’s policy as practiced so far, instrumentalized in the form of the CVM, does justify the explicit assumption implied in the mechanism’s name that it is more than mere monitoring, and also a form of cooperation? The authors do not confine their research to tracing the extent to which Bulgaria or Romania comply to the recommendations of the European Commission but investigate broader developments in these two specific cases. They studied the Commission’s findings, comments, and assessments in all fields covered by the CVM (and not only compliance with the anti-corruption recommendations), using an analytical instrument comprised of 133 different indicators concerning the broadest possible spectrum of substantive, structural, and evaluative dimensions of this specific bilateral relationship.

It is the objective of the MAXCAP Working Paper Series to disseminate the research results of the research consortium to a wide audience, including the academia as well as the general public. Thus, all Working Papers can be downloaded free of charge from our website.